OMG!... sorry for, the OT... I know my observations, forthcoming, are not scientific and subjective to the extreme... BUT...
Like many, I got a CD player in the mid '80's and never looked back. The apparent 0 background noise, no clicking, pops, dust, made me love CD's. My son told me two months ago that he was interested in vinyl records. That's all it took to make me start looking around at vintage gear. I've kind of stagnated on a mid 90's Technics all-purpose AV receiver, quite well spec'd and all, with either Bose Acoustimass speakers and/or whatever is installed in the ceiling of our home. I started out planning on giving him my early '80's Kenwood 30W/channel system, amp, tuner, EQ, and getting a mint Technics TT and a better than average cartridge. He would choose the loudspeakers. Well I went a small bit crazy. He also was interested in reel-to-reel, something I always wanted, but I opted for cassette back in earlier years for $ reason and because I could make a tape and play it in the car. So I bought him a mint TEAC 3340S 4-track. My Kenwood system, quite nice, but all I could afford at 21 yrs. old, does not accomodate the necessary tape inputs/outputs, dubbing, etc., and has no speaker A/B for a possible sub-woofer. So onto look at more amps. I bought him a nice used Denon 50W/channel receiver & perfect Pioneer CD changer for $150. Then I saw a Kenwood KA-3500 40W/channel integrated amp and got it for $31. I subsequently saw a 65W/channel late '70's Pioneer integrated amp & tuner in mint condition with the silver fronts, wood sides, Blue Fluoro meters, and analog tuning for $260 + shipping. He liked it the best out of the bunch, and we got it. He had picked out some PSB (Canadian-made) speakers which are quite good (also my pick of the affordable ones we demo'd) and which are due to arrive. Meanwhile I found a pair of mid '80's B&W English-made speakers for $100 and bought them undemo'd on a whim. I've sat here most of the day listening to some vintage LP'S (OK, 99% Beatles with a little Nat King Cole, Chicago, Heart, Macca, and classical thrown in). This is with a $31 amp, a vintage turntable and a cheap Audio-Technica cartridge, and a 25 year old pair of speakers. I may never buy another CD again. The amount of musical detail I can hear and the dynamics of the music (can't describe it any better) are just superb. It sounds like real music and real voices. Likely the Pioneer turntable/cartridge and JBL tower speakers I could afford when I was much younger were not as good as what I'm listening to at the moment. Just the musicality of what I'm hearing on 20-30 year old gear and on equally old vinyl LP's is astounding (I purchased 214, played only once LP's + a 50w/ch Technics receiver, cassette deck, a 2nd pretty good TT, and speakers (worthless), for $250). It was worth 2x-3x more than that for the LP's alone. What I'm hearing is really better than what I hear on CD or iPod. Simply amazed... not over-imbibed, just astounded. I got my hearing back. In between all that I found a '80's Pioneer 100W/channel amp, tuner, EQ, and timer for $95 in like new condition, which I got solely for the EQ & timer. (I'm not going to tell you this led to me getting a mint Denon amp & mint B&W speakers for myself... now looking for the right TT & tuner). It's not bad, living vicariously through your children. Tom -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
